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odinn7 · Aug 9, 2011, 05:32 PM

I'm considering making a new TV purchase some time in the near future and am starting to do some research on what I want. Right now I have a Toshiba 37" LCD that is a few years old and am very happy with it. My plan is to buy a newer, bigger TV and put the 37" Toshiba in the bedroom. Anyway...

In doing the research, I am starting to wonder about a few things as it seems to be raising more questions in my head than answering them.

1) I have seen both LCD and LED in the stores. LED looks really sharp. Is it really worth the extra money and will it be as dependable as LCD?

2) I have DirecTv right now but only the standard digital signal, no HD. I only watch regular TV anyway so I see no need for HD. The standard digital signal looks fine on my current LCD, can I expect the same from LED or is there going to be a difference? DVD's look great on my LCD right now, that's as close to HD as I get.

3) I saw some TV's (both LCD and LED) that mention them being 120Mhz refresh rate compared to 60Mhz refresh rate of most TV's. Will my eyes notice a difference? Will 120Mhz picture be OK with standard digital signal or will it make the picture look worse since it is a higher refresh rate?

I appreciate if anyone can help me answer some of these questions. It's getting too confusing to buy a TV these days without researching carefully. It used to be all you had to worry about was if you wanted to spend the extra money for color over B&W... lol.

BK201 · Aug 9, 2011, 05:47 PM

As far as 120 Mhz is concerned, my TV has 100 fps (frames per second) and you can switch to 60 fps too. It really makes a huge difference while watching movies in 100 fps since the flow is smooth. And you can people moving, turning their head, waving their hand etc in a smooth flow.
If it is a TV greater than 37" donot settle for HD-ready, please for for HD. Two reasons, HD or HD ready doesnt make a difference in tv's below 32" but that's not the case of tv's over 37". And almost all the media devices from cell phones to PS3 to HD players they all support HD.
Indeed, LED looks sharper when I saw them in the shop. But I settled for LG LCD with 100 fps.

odinn7 · Aug 9, 2011, 05:49 PM

You confused me a little more now... lol. HD and HD ready... HD would be a TV capable of 1080 or am I wrong about that?

Skylude · Aug 9, 2011, 06:01 PM

Your eyes will notice a difference from 60mhz to 120mhz. It mostly depends on what you are watching. Take a look at this article which will help you decide, 60mhz is generally fine. http://tv.about.com/od/productreview...efreshrate.htm LED TV's will last longer than LCD's as the LED have a longer illumination life than the LCD type display. Remember when looking at TV's at the store some may have their brightness/contrast set differently to make certain TV's jump out at you. HD and HD ready are the same thing. The TV will say if it is 1080/720, which does make a difference in how good the TV looks. If you have any other questions just let us know.

FadedMaster · Aug 9, 2011, 08:33 PM

I worked in TV sales for two years, Home Theater Install for another two and am now working in television repair.

First off, it is not Mhz. That would be quite a fast display. Haha. It's actually 60Hz, 120Hz, and so on. People can argue about the capability of the human eye and so on, but it really has nothing to do with that.

Here's a basic explanation of why you might want 120Hz. First off, it's required if you decide to go 3D. Next, if you want to get the smoothest picture possible (especially from Blu-ray), then you might want to invest in 120Hz.

Basically everything is filmed at 24 frames per second. Which if you do the math does not fit with the 60 refreshes per second (60Hz). However, 24fps does fit into 120 refreshes per second. This allows you to see each individual frame completely. As mentioned, the greatest benefit to this is from Blu-ray which will actually output at 24 frames per second.

Broadcast television has already had processing done to make it a 60Hz signal, so the TV will break it back apart to the original 24 frames per second so that the picture looks smoother. However this process can cause some artifacting. This whole process is automatic and even if you do decide to go with a 60Hz display, you will not need to worry too much about judder/motion blur/etc.

Your best bet is to look at some 120hz and 60hz TVs side-by-side. I purchased a 120Hz display and would never go back to a 60Hz now that I have spoiled myself.

LED-LCDs are more energy efficient, are brighter, and indeed do last longer. However, longevity is not something to concern yourself with. 60,000 hours is the life expectancy of an LCD, and 75,000 is the typical life expectancy of an LED-LCD. That's a 5 year difference at 8 hours a day. Which may seem like a lot, but we're talking around 20 years versus 25 years. Chances are something will cause you to get a new TV, whether it is a failure, an upgrade, or whatever. Oh and LED-LCDs are thinner.

BK201 · Aug 9, 2011, 10:28 PM

you are correct about HD, it is 1920 X 1080 pixels. However HD-ready is 1366x768. But it can display 1080 p signals by scaling it down.
And their difference was not visible in a 32 inch TV (thanks to the TV shop rep, he gave me in and out details before I bought it.. im not a TV expert.. ;)
So, you can go for 120Hz, HD, LED, and if your budget allows, even 3D. After all, its one time investment which you are not going to upgrade in, say, another 10 years.

phillysteakandcheese · Aug 10, 2011, 09:16 AM

In my opinion, LED does look sharper and I see a crisper image at 120Hz, so I think they are worth the extra cost, as is going for full 1080p resolution.

I made the switch to HD TV last Christmas and I am still blown away at how good HD TV looks compared to Standard Definition TV. Baseball and hockey games are just phenomenal! :)

Although not quite as dramatic, I also see a nice improvement in video quality with Blue-Ray over DVD. Older movies don't benefit as much, but movies from the last 4-5 years look significantly better. If there is any chance you might want to go to Blue-Ray, you'll want the 1080p resolution to take advantage of it.

odinn7 · Aug 10, 2011, 09:29 AM

Ok then... looks like I'll be concentrating on brands that offer LED with 120Hz refresh rates. I like Toshiba, Sony, LG, and Samsung so far.

Thanks for all the help.

FadedMaster · Aug 10, 2011, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by BK201

you are correct about HD, it is 1920 X 1080 pixels. However HD-ready is 1366x768. But it can display 1080 p signals by scaling it down.
And their difference was not visible in a 32 inch tv (thanks to the tv shop rep, he gave me in and out details before i bought it..im not a tv expert .. ;)
So, you can go for 120Hz, HD, LED, and if your budget allows, even 3D. After all, its one time investment which you are not gonna upgrade in, say, another 10 years.

HD-ready is not 1366x768.

HD-ready means you need something extra to display the HD, this term is usually used today to mean that the set does not contain an ATSC tuner which is used to receive HD signals over the air.

"FullHD" is a marketing term you might be getting confused with. This term is used to describe 1080p although Hitachi did market some "FullHD" sets that were actually 1080i back in the day.

FadedMaster · Aug 10, 2011, 03:01 PM

Originally Posted by odinn7

Ok then...looks like I'll be concentrating on brands that offer LED with 120Hz refresh rates. I like Toshiba, Sony, LG, and Samsung so far.

Thanks for all the help.

I am partial to Samsung. Don't be discouraged because you can find a lot of problems with Samsungs online. And I'll be honest, I work on more Samsungs than anything else. But that's to be expected when they almost have the market cornered. They're approaching 20% of the world market share, which no one has been close to since TVs were first manufactured.

LG and Toshiba do not have as good of picture quality as the Samsung or Sony TVs, but they definitely have a more appealing price tag. If you decide to look at 3D, the LGs have much less expensive 3D glasses and are compatible with the ones you get at the theater. However, their type of 3D is not actually HD.

Sony TVs tend to have less glare than Samsung TVs, but the trade-off is that they don't have as nice of picture quality.

odinn7 · Aug 10, 2011, 07:47 PM

The LCD TV I have right now is a Toshiba and I love it. Real nice picture, color, everything. I have a 22" LCD monitor for my computer and am also very happy with that. The monitor died on me this past January and even though it was just over 2 years old, LG was very cool about taking care of it for me... free. Customer service like that goes a long way with me. Not saying I won't look at Samsung and Sony but this is also my reasoning for including Toshiba and LG in what I am looking to buy.

FadedMaster · Aug 11, 2011, 04:59 AM

Originally Posted by odinn7

The LCD TV I have right now is a Toshiba and I love it. Real nice picture, color, everything. I have a 22" LCD monitor for my computer and am also very happy with that. The monitor died on me this past January and even though it was just over 2 years old, LG was very cool about taking care of it for me...free. Customer service like that goes a long way with me. Not saying I won't look at Samsung and Sony but this is also my reasoning for including Toshiba and LG in what I am looking to buy.

Yep, LG is pretty good. I have dual 23" LED-LCD monitors from LG. For my TVs, both are Samsung LCDs (when I purchased them it was over $1000 extra just for the upgrade to LED-LCD).

EDIT: One thing that I should mention is that 1 year and 1 month after I purchased one of the LG monitors, the EDID failed on it; although I had the tools to fix it, the monitor actually had a 2 year warranty, and so I took it back to Best Buy and exchanged it for the display of the same one (I want my dual monitors to match).

odinn7 · Jan 5, 2012, 09:35 PM

So... the other day I was out shopping for Blu-Ray players and while at the store, I was looking the TV's over as I still haven't gotten a new one yet. I will be getting one within a month, two at the most.

The reason I am reviving this thread is that while looking in the store, I was actually checking out the plasma TV's as well as the LED and LCD sets. Samsung had a real nice 51" plasma that was only 720p though the picture looked great. LG had a real nice looking 50" plasma with 1080p. The sets were within $70 of each other but both were quite cheaper than somewhat smaller LED sets.

So I guess my question is... Is plasma worth it? I had been pretty much set on LED but after looking at the plasma sets, I am wondering if I may be better off heading in that direction.

Any thoughts on this?

FadedMaster · Jan 6, 2012, 06:13 AM

Plasma will have a better contrast than either LED-LCD or tranditional LCD will be able to get. Plasma does use more energy, generate more heat, weigh more, and usually has more glare.

Depending on which Samsung plasma you were looking at, you might want to be careful. I know there's a 51" model that has been having issues with their X-main boards failing within 30-90 days of purchase. I can't remember which model number this was, and am not sure if this problem has been addressed or affected only a certain date range.

odinn7 · Jan 6, 2012, 08:18 PM

Thanks for the input. I was actually leaning towards the Samsung until I realized that for another $70, I could get the LG that's 1080p. Not sure if that makes a huge difference or not but I figured with having Blu-Ray and all that, I might as well shoot for 1080p.

FadedMaster · Jan 7, 2012, 12:16 AM

Originally Posted by odinn7

Thanks for the input. I was actually leaning towards the Samsung until I realized that for another $70, I could get the LG that's 1080p. Not sure if that makes a huge difference or not but I figured with having Blu-Ray and all that, I might as well shoot for 1080p.

In the 50" size range, the large majority of people notice the difference between 720p and 1080p. So it's worth it to upgrade. I just haven't seen any LG plasmas for quite a while. I honestly didn't realize they were still making them.